


The Box

by SlytherinSweetheart1



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Aliens Made Them Do It, Early Season 4, F/M, inseparable
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-23
Updated: 2018-10-30
Packaged: 2019-08-06 10:06:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16385924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SlytherinSweetheart1/pseuds/SlytherinSweetheart1
Summary: Everyone speaks at once: “You see, Sir, there was a cultural misunderstanding..” Sam begins.”-and they ere entrusted with the greatest of honours.” - Teal’c contributes. “It’s a whole new species!” Daniel, loud, desperate to establish the moral necessity of what is about to create endless drama. But it is the Colonel that speaks over them, sardonic and irreverent. “We’re pregnant!”Sam and Jack are required to stay within 1km of each other or the new alien species they are incubating will die and perish, bringing mortal ruin and the wrath of Daniel Jackson upon us all.





	1. One

**Author's Note:**

  * For [fems](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fems/gifts).
  * In response to a prompt by [fems](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fems/pseuds/fems) in the [Inseparable](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/Inseparable) collection. 



> **Prompt:**
> 
> Sam and Jack are somehow bonded off-world (ritual or tech, author's choice) and can't go a klick apart. Ultimately this leads to their UST becoming RST.

They walk onto the embarkation platform, Teal’c and Daniel, protective and concerned, in front, and Jack and Sam behind them. Sam looks tired, blond hair frizzy, bags under her eyes, walking with careful and measured steps, holding in both hands a metal box, about the size of a tissue box, that pulses and glows with different colours. Jack knows it looks weird, him hovering behind her, his hand on the small of her back, and when they finally stop in front of General Hammond, instead of the usual greeting, Jack finds himself leaning over Sam, crowding her, casually stroking the box as if it was a favourite pet.

“Colonel, what is the matter with you?” Even the reprimand from the General isn’t enough to shake the dreamy look on Jack’s face. Sam, on the other hand, looks absolutely mortified.

Everyone speaks at once: “You see, Sir, there was a cultural misunderstanding..” Sam begins.”-and they ere entrusted with the greatest of honours.” - Teal’c contributes. “It’s a whole new species!” Daniel, loud, desperate to establish the moral necessity of what is about to create endless drama. But it is the Colonel that speaks over them, sardonic and irreverent. “We’re pregnant!” At his exclamation, Sam cringes, unable to look at the General, holding the box in front of her as if she was five again and had brought home a stray. 

To her utmost surprise, Hammond laughs, turns around, and walks off. Shit. They had officially broken him.

—-

“We have some very specific guidelines and also the reality that we are now responsible for a life form, an entire species, and if we do anything outside those guidelines, the life that we are entrusted with will case. The being will die, and it will be our fault.” By the time they sat down around the boardroom table, Daniel’s moral outcry had developed to a fever pitch.

“Oh Daniel, save me your bullshit, you can’t honestly tell me you believe there is a being in the box Carter is carrying.”

“Not just a being, Jack, a child.”

And that is the sticking point. Jack is wonderful with children, and ruthless with anything that threatens his team. The new species contained in the Box, growing, evolving, adapting, is both.

“Doctor Jackson, are you able to tell us more of the guidelines. If we are risking both Major Carter and the Colonel, I would like to know what is involved.”

Jack looks at his CO, then at Carter, and frowns. This whole mess is playing with his mind, one second he is captivated by the Box, and then, when he is further away from it and able to resist its pull, he realises the absolute danger that it represents.

“All they have to do is spend time either touching or very closely to the box, and the life inside of it will grow and evolve until it is, and we are not sure if this is the exact translation, but, basically, hatched.”

“We secured the Treaty, but apparently, this was a necessity. It was my fault, Sir, I had declined the more traditional approach of how they bestow a Gift.”

“What’s that, Major?”

Sam blushes scarlet. “You see, the only true Gift is life.” Daniel begins, but Jack is there to speed things along “they wanted to impregnate Carter the old fashioned way. Then they wanted us to impregnate Carter. There was much debate, and now here we are, with a faux pregnancy in a box.”

Hammond looks like he is about to crack again, unravel, decide it is time for retirement, and leave this whole mess to someone else. Seconds tick by, he looks to be visibly taking a deep breath, counting, and then he schools his face again.

“Is what is in the box made of your genetic material? Is there an actual human foetus in it?” 

“No” says Jack. “Yes.” Counteracts Daniel. And while they continue their typical argument of No, Yes, No, Sam adds “We know nothing about this technology, and it would be fascinating to learn how they create what they refer to as a new species. We do know it is shaped and fed by our presence.”

“It is why they are bound to it.” Add’s Teal’c.

“So if the Chiefs approve this, what does it mean realistically?”

“Besides a new species, Sir?” Asks Sam.

“It means Carter and I both need to go on maternity leave.”


	2. Two

“Sir, do you have a minute?” Sam ducks into his office, Box in hand, and gingerly places it on his desk.

“Sure, Carter, pull up a stack.” Jack points to the chairs covered in various folders, some teetering on dangerous precipice. It makes her smile, so he feel that he’s accomplished something for the day.

When she looks back at him, the smile is gone, and she seems slightly anxious in that particularly Carter way. “Out with it, Major.”

“Sir, I need you to take the Box from 8am to noon on weekdays, he’s messing with my experiments.”

“He?”

“Uhh, well, it seems to have an attitude, and so..” “You’ve spent too much time with Daniel” Jack interjects, he shakes his head ruefully and reaches for the Box.

“So if that’s ok, Sir, I’ll drop the Box off with you over breakfast and then I’ll come by once the mid day Innovation meeting is finished and pick it up. That will allow you and Teal’c to still go sparring before the afternoon debrief.”

The look on his face is so unique, so perplexing, that Sam can’t help but lean against his desk and study him. When he looks up at her again, his voice is full of grief and bittersweet memories “Last time I had this conversation, Carter, it was over an actual child.”

“Sir!” She’s startled, saddened, her hands automatically reach for him, to comfort, and she pulls them back to her sides.

“Ahh, Sara and I were on the brink of divorce many times. If you asked her, I wasn’t exactly exemplary father material.”

“The Radolfians said they looked into our souls, Sir, and found it to be the opposite.”

“You don’t believe in souls, Carter.” “No,” she acknowledges, “but you do.”

—

And true to her word, Carter comes back that noon to pick up the Box. It glows gently, as if it is dreaming, the pulsing light settled down for a nap, and Jack shakes his head at his own folly. It’s a Box. Boxes don’t sleep. It reacts slightly to her touch, and then resettles into the gentle glow within moments.

He pretends to ignore the ever piling paperwork, mostly to annoy Daniel when he stops by, and the rest of his afternoon is properly uneventful. Jack almost starts missing the klaxons blaring, before crippling pain brings him to his knees. One step, two, and he staggers against the door of his office. The hallway provides some relief, but a tension he wasn’t used to feeling pulls him in the direction of the Mess. Gasping for air, trying to think through the pain, Jack slumps against the wall.

Fraser comes running past him, medic team on her heels. Before he can even think to call out, she turns the corner and continues to the elevators that would take her topside.

“Fraser.” He finally croaks, she turns, briefly, assessing, and dispatches wordlessly a medic to see to him.

Jack is still being attended to, leaning against the wall, when they bring Sam back down in the elevators. She is clutching the Box with a pained look, and when she sees Jack, the reality of their predicament becomes obvious.

“Sonfoabitch.” Jack mutters, but the curses from Carter are steadier and worse.


	3. Three

“Exactly one klick.” Says Daniel. “Which seems abstract really because why would kilometres matter to the Radolfians, so it must be some arbitrary measurement that is imposed because it means something to Jack and Sam. If you weren’t military, it would probably be a mile.”

“Shame, an extra bit of space for our prison.” Jack adds, anger a steady undercurrent in his demeanour.

“Jack, you need to stop looking at it that way. Frankly, if you were a human woman, you wouldn’t be quite so comfortable being away from an incubating foetus.” It would seem absurd and ridiculous, the things that happen to them, and Jack wants to yell at Daniel as a matter of principle, but he can’t help but be drawn to the queasy look Sam keeps shooting at the Box.

“Daniel. It isn’t a child. This mechanism has put Carter in danger. What if she had been driving, or in the field?” That sobers Daniel up, just enough, “We still can’t kill it Jack.”

“Our Orders are to study it, Sir.”

“Would not the Tauri benefit medically from this technology?”

“If it kills Carter, I’m going to put it in a sack and drown it.”

“That’s it!-“ they have now incurred the wrath of Janet Fraiser “everyone who didn’t collapse at work today and is not being held hostage by an alien Tamagochi, get out of my infirmary.”


	4. Four

“Carter, are you ready to go?” Jack O’Neill, bright and chirpy on a Sunday morning. It was torture.

“Go, sir?” Sam groans, sitting on the edge of the bed in her private quarters, Box at her feet, massaging her temples.

“Carter did you have too much to drink last night?” He sing songs as he cracks open her door. The light fills the room and the glow of the Box immediately becomes playful and intense.

“Hello Box.” Jack says, and then laughs at the colourful display that it produces.

“Seems to recognise voices.” Sam adds, and then shakes her head as if to dispel the idea.

“Carter, it’s Sunday. You wanted a haircut, and I need to eat ice cream and look at the sunshine. We have clearance for today, remember?”

“Can’t you take him and I can roll over and die?” Sam mumbles, and then she is mortified to have spoken so out of turn to an officer. “Sir. Sorry, Sir.”

“Never mind, Carter, strange circumstances for us all. Are you sick?”

“He just wants to play all night, Sir. I got no sleep.”

“At least with human children you know they will settle down after about six weeks. Listen, why don’t I take him tonight? I haven’t really been doing my share.”

“I wouldn’t want to..” Sam rushes to interject.

“You know. If it was a baby, I wouldn’t have just..never mind.” He looks confused at his own words.

“You wouldn’t have..” she prompts, always eager for these moments of shared intimacy. Knowing they are dangerous, knowing that they will show him that she feels much more than their simple flirtations allow.

“I wouldn’t have abandoned you, Carter.”

“Are you saying you would have done the honourable thing, Sir?” Stupid. Stupid. A comment like that to a superior officer. What was she thinking?

“Carter, I hope you’re not accusing me of expecting to trap you barefoot and pregnant. It’s not my style. For one, I’ve tried your cooking.” He teases back.

Relief. She didn’t overstep the line.

“If you take Box, I’ll shower and meet you topside in ten. Sir.”

“Wear something nice, we need to grab lunch.” It makes her raise her eyebrow at his outfit, his bright green pants and blue shirt are ridiculous on the best day.

 

Exactly ten minutes later Jack is chatting with the sign out crew, a backpack slung over one shoulder. Sam meets him toting a large sack of laundry and a tired smile. He doesn’t reach for her bag, here they are equals, but as they walk to his truck, conversation light and inconsequential, she notices Jack - almost without thinking - move to open the passenger door for her. Usually, when they are driving together, he gives her the keys, happy for her manoeuvre his big truck about.

“Sit back and enjoy the ride, Carter. You haven’t had much sleep, least I can do is help out.”

“Sir. This isn’t your fault. You didn’t actually get me pregnant.” It must be the exhaustion that causes her to say such a stupid thing, as if she didn’t spend ten minutes berating herself in the shower for her earlier commentary.

She can see him choose to not respond, ensuring that he toes the line between funny and cruel. He doesn’t take advantage. Sam knows that’s the only way in which he treats her differently than he does Teal’c and Daniel and she suspects it is because at some point he had figured her out. Sam is proud, and the chip on her shoulder caused by the merciless teasing by Dad and Mark is a mile long. These days, she doesn’t bat an eyelid at the good natured (or not) ribbing from the others, but Jack’s opinion matters. And he knows. He respects her pride and covers her shame, and she’s grateful.

Sam knows he respects her as an officer, he certainly had never sought to shelter her from the work in that condescending male way she had encountered time in and time out. Jack O’Neill didn’t let his chivalrous nature obstruct his tactical decision making or good sense. Still, Sam had seen his behaviour with civilian women and she knows his first words to her were true; he really did like women. Sometimes, Sam wanted to be a woman to Jack O’Neill.


End file.
